Unexpected Friendship
by Peryton
Summary: During a mission to restock the food supplies Harry finds himself face to face with a member of species 8472, the young alien turns out to be in high demand by another alien species, causing some problems for the Captain. Before Season 5 In the Flesh.
1. Chapter 1

He watched from his well concealed hiding place behind a pile of radioactive rubble. The human couldn't see him, Nuox was relieved. The human was holding one of their sensor technologies, Nuox hoped the thing wouldn't be able to detect him through the rubble. Nuox was a non-humanoid, the Borg called him 8472. He was a young male, wounded in several places. His ship had fallen out of fluidic space and been attacked savagely. Nuox knew he probably was the last one of his kind outside of his home world, and he knew his chances of survival were slim. But even if the chances were one in billion isn't it the organisms duty to try his absolute hardest to be that one who survived the odds?

The human wasn't particularly tall, he had a black mop of hair and was male. He wore the black and yellow of a Starfleet. A Borg friend. The enemy. Nuox was frightened by the human. He'd heard stories about them. How they used weapons capable of destroying an entire fleet of ships at one time. Nuox's father, Deverinhoth, had been killed by the human race. Nuox watched now as the human walked over to some small plants. The human opened a metal container and started yanking at the plant.

"Darned roots." The human growled softly. "All this work for some bitter tasting root. I had better start saving replicator rations, I'm not sure I can survive one more Leola and fresh dirt root casserole." Nuox thought it very amusing to hear the man speak. He may be the most terrible species in the galaxy, but Nuox found himself slightly relieved to hear the war-like species complaining about something as trivial as food.

"Hey, Harry!" Nuox tensed. Another, much taller, human walked out of the bushes. This one had a yellowish mop of hair but was also holding a metal box and a sensor thing.

"Yeah Tom?"

"Have you seen Neelix? I found some weird fungi, they seem edible, but they keep producing spores that I can't get a clear scan on."

"Great, fungus emitting unidentifiable spores. What next?"

"Look, I know you're in a really bad mood. I probably would be too if the Captain practically forced me to eat a brand new dish not even the cook had never tried, but that doesn't mean I'd have a hissy-fit."

"A what?"

"Temper tantrum."

"Oh. Tom, I was stuck in Sickbay all week because of that casserole, and as soon as I get back on duty I'm stuck collecting roots for some other life-threatening concoction."

"Do you know where he is or not?" Tom asked.

"He's over with Tuvok looking at those fruits."

"Thanks." The blond, Tom, walked off. Nuox felt bad for the black haired human, Harry. A week of being sick over a meal didn't sound very fun.

Harry placed the root inside the container and walked over to another one, this time right beside a deep hole. The human didn't even bother scanning the hole. Nuox found this strange, and it worried him a bit. Nuox scolded himself silently, he shouldn't be worried about a human, they were evil. Friends of the Borg. The enemy. Nuox gasped in shock as a large, fanged, worm-like creature leaped out of the hole and grabbed Harry by the arm. The man screamed as he was pulled down beneath the ground. Acting on impulse the alien leaped in after him, his ethics wouldn't allow another species, even a human, to die when help could easily have been offered.

The cave was large, dark and stank horribly. Nuox glanced around. He could see the animal dragging the human across the cave floor. It appeared the human was unconscious. Nuox followed slowly, memorizing the way. When the worm stopped the alien advanced, using all of the skills his parents had taught him. When he came within range he sprang upon the animal pinning it down and pounding it mercilessly with a volley of punches. Nuox was dimly aware of the human crawling away from the fight. Nuox realized he would have to move quickly if he wanted to catch Harry before he wondered off in the wrong direction. The alien thrust his hands with surprising power against the animals back. With a crack and a groan it collapsed. Nuox didn't spare a moment before dashing off and gently grabbing hold of the human, which fainted as soon as he saw his rescuers face. The alien grasped the man by his shirt and dragged him back out of the cave and up the tunnel, which had a diagonal slant. When he emerged from the top, Nuox deposited his parcel on the ground at the base of the rubble pile.

Nuox turned to the human, it had just woken up as he dropped it. It was sitting staring with a mixture of shock and terror at the 8472. Harry's arm was torn, blood slowly sliding down, and he was covered in grime.

"You should wrap that." Nuox offered, the silence was bothering him. The Starfleets badge was obviously providing a translator. "You might get an infection from that, uh, worm."

"You, you're an 8472." The human said dumbly.

"Yeah."

"What are you doing here? Your kind were banished to fluidic space."

"I know. The ship I was commissioned on accidentally fell out of the home world and was attacked viciously by the Hirogen. I'm the only survivor. My name is Nuox." Harry said nothing, just stared at the alien in front of him, the alien which had probably saved his life.

"Tuvok to Ensign Kim." The Vulcans voice rang over the com.

"Kim here."

"You were supposed to meet for transport three minutes ago. Is everything all right?"

"Yes. I mean, I think so."

"You think so? Explain."

"I was attacked by a cave dwelling animal and dragged beneath the ground, and then was saved by an alien. An 8472 named Nuox."

"Are you still in its company?"

"Yeah."

"We are going to transport you out of there immediately. Prepare for emergency beam out."

"No, wait."

"Mr. Kim, need I remind you of the physical capabilities of the alien."

"No."

"Then why do you wish to prolong your stay in its presence?"

"It saved my life…"

"And another tried to take it away."

"Yes, but not this one. This one's injured we might be able to help it. And it's alone."

"For how long?"

"Just ask the Captain alright?"

"Very well. But I am sending a security team down to your location immediately. It is illogical to trust a species such as the 8472."

"Fine, just make sure they don't shoot it unless it's completely necessary."

"Tuvok out." Nuox listened to this exchange with interest.

"Who tried to kill you before?" Nuox asked.

"One of your kind. Voyager was trying to get through Borg space when we ran into one of your vessels. I was attacked and became infected with a really strange virus of sorts."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Nuox replied honestly. "I was alway told that humans were evil. Friends of the Borg. The enemy. But I'm really not sure anymore. You aren't so different from me in the long run. Nor are any of our species'." Harry obviously wasn't convinced. Then five of Voyagers security crewmen arrived.

"Ensign." Ayala said stiffly. "Are you alright?"

"Just a couple of scratches the worm gave me. This is Nuox." He said, not all that happily.

"Hello." Nuox said without moving. He got the impression that any sudden movements would result in weapons fire.

"This is the Captain speaking." The voice rang over the com links. "We're beaming the five of you along with our alien friend directly to the Brig. Harry, we're sending you straight to Sickbay. Prepare for transport." Nuox then felt the strange tingling, and when it stopped he was in a box of a room, lit with blue lights. There was one opening, but he saw the force-field go into place and knew he was being quarantined. The five guards were outside. Nuox watched them at their work for a while, but found it very boring. He had never taken much interest in security. He preferred making first contact with new species, unfortunately that didn't happen often for his kind, and when it did it almost always ended in armed conflict. That was what he hated most about his kind, they stood alone.

The sliding doors opened and in walked a lady wearing the red and black of a commanding officer. Beside her was a species he recognized as Vulcan.

"I am Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager. You are?" She said.

"I'm truly very honoured to meet your kind, Captain. My name is Nuox. Is Harry okay?" Nuox asked. The Captain smiled slightly.

"He's fine. You just startled him a bit. Mind telling me what you were doing on that planet?"

"I don't mind at all. My ship was destroyed in combat with the Hirogen. I escaped on a piece of debris, and then moved onto a passing shuttlecraft that landed on this planet for a short while. I had taken a good beating and decided to hang around here. I didn't expect anyone to come and find me. My people never leave fluidic space. It's too risky. We lost hundreds of good people in the conflict with the Borg, and with you. I'm very sorry it came to fighting. From what I've seen of Harry our species' have many similarities, I'm glad my opinion of you as savage, violent beasts was converted."

"So am I." Kathryn said. "Is there anything I could offer you? As far as I'm concerned you saved my crewman's life."

"I really don't wish to burden you. But if your Doctor wouldn't mind patching me up a bit, I would really appreciate it. It takes an awful long time to heal outside of fluidic space."

"I understand. Janeway to Transporter Room 1." She said tapping her badge.

"Wildman here."

"Transport our guest to Sickbay."

"Understood. Transport in progress….. complete."

"Good. Janeway out." She said as she left the Brig and headed for Sickbay.


	2. Chapter 2

Harry woke with a sinking feeling in his chest. He was in Sickbay, he remembered being transported there from the planet. The planet where he had been searching for food supplies. The planet where he'd met the 8472. Harry sat straight up and stared around. The Doctor wasn't there, he was probably off in the meeting room with the other senior officers. Harry's eyes fell on the neighbouring bio-bed. The alien was lying there, breathing heavily, snoring slightly. Harry's mind returned to all those months ago when he'd been lying in the very same bio-bed, organic tendrils snaking through his body. He felt like vomiting at the thought of what the aliens had done to him. But this alien, this Nuox, had actually saved Harry's life.

The alien yawned, a strange thing for a non-humanoid. It opened its bright yellow eyes and sat up. It slowly slipped off of the bio-bed and stretched. It glanced around its body, all the scars and wounds were gone. The alien made an attempt at a smile.

"Your Doctor has done wonders on me. I'm completely healed." Nuox said to the Ensign, who said nothing. "Are you feeling any better, Harry?" The alien asked. Harry found its compassion appalling.

"Yes. I feel fine." He said.

"That's good." The alien said. "It was very kind of your Captain to bring me here and heal me."

"It wasn't you. She's just repaying the favour you did for me." Harry said, slightly harsher than he had intended. The alien seemed to understand his anger.

"I'm sorry I upset you. I'll leave as soon as your Captain lets me." Then the lights turned red and the alarms went off.

"Why have we gone to red alert?" Harry asked no one in particular as he charged over to the Doctors desk and grabbed his com-link, pinning it to his chest. As an afterthought he called out to the computer. "Computer, activate Emergency Medical Hologram." With a beep the program came online.

"What is the nature…. Harry! Out of bed already."

"Yes. When were you shut down?"

"B' Elanna needed to route emergency power from the holo-emitters. She needed to shut down my program, that was nearly nine hours ago."

"Why? What's going on?"

"I'm afraid I'm not sure. Last I heard we had just escaped an extremely fierce war vessel."

"A warship? Our sensors would have picked it up."

"I know. But we are in the Delta Quadrant Mr. Kim, regular rules do not always apply." Harry slapped his com-badge.

"Ensign Kim to the Captain."

"This isn't a good time, Harry."

"What's going on?"

"We're being pursued by a warship. If you can be spared report to the Bridge immediately, if not please don't bother us right now."

"I'm on my way. Kim out." Harry said. He dipped his head to the Doctor then dashed out of Sickbay. Nuox watched with interest.

* * *

><p>When Harry arrived on the Bridge everything had calmed down, the Captain was beside Tom debating whether or not they could jump to warp safely. A large ship was on the view-screen. Harry slipped behind the Ops station and quickly ran a diagnostic.<p>

"They're hailing us." He called out. Kathryn glanced up, she hadn't heard him come in.

"On screen." She said, assuming her Captain pose. An alien came on screen. It was a strange thing. Kazon hair, Ferengi ears, Telaxian coloration, not to mention the obvious size and build of a Hirogen and posture of a Vulcan. Chakotay walked over beside the Captain and exchanged a glance with her.

"I am Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager. Why have you been pursuing us?"

"I am Kop-Lok-Narix of the genetically engineered species Televok. You have many species on your ship which we would like to incorporate into our diverse genome. One of which you recently harvested from a nearby planet. Ring a bell?" He croaked. Kathryn didn't like this beast one bit.

"I'm afraid I can't allow any of my crew members to be spared. We are on a long journey and I need all of them."

"I have heard of you, Janeway. Your reputation is impressive, and an alliance would be profitable for both of us."

"Maybe for you. But I am not willing to lose anyone. I don't want to fight you, Kop-Lok-Narix but we will defend ourselves, violently if necessary."

"Your little ship doesn't stand a chance against me."

"Apparently you only acknowledged half of Voyager's reputation."

"Yes, yes. You have a good bit of fire power for a ship your size, but you cannot possibly think you could win a battle between our two crafts."

"I don't want to fight you. I wouldn't even if I had a ship with twice your fire power. We don't want armed conflict."

"Naturally. If you hand over 8472 we will let you pass."

"I would like to discuss this with my Senior Officers. Will you permit this?"

"Go ahead. You have one hour to decide." Then the transmission ended. Kathryn sighed, her head sank into her hand.

"Charming people, aren't they." Tom said, spinning his chair around.

"What are we going to do?" Harry asked once they'd entered the meeting room.

"The logical response," Tuvok said, "would be to do as they please. Although, knowing the Captain, it is unlikely we will do so." Kathryn smiled at her Chief of Security.

"You're right, I don't think we can just let our new friend die. It doesn't seem right. He might be our link to an alliance with the aliens of fluidic space." Chakotay nodded.

"I agree, but we need to think about the present. A future alliance won't do us much good if we're being incorporated into the Televok DNA strands."

"We could rig up one of the shuttles with holo- emitters. Then we could recreate an image of our 8472 buddy to play as bait." B' Elanna offered.

"But as soon as they figure out what we did they'd be onto us." Tom said.

"We could send a second shuttle with the alien towards the asteroids we located three hours from our current position." Chakotay said.

"I don't want to lose a shuttle unless I have to." Kathryn said.

"Myself and Mr. Kim could go along and transport the alien onto one of the asteroids." Tuvok said.

"Good idea. B' Elanna, get to work on those holo- emitters. Tom, help her. Harry, update our guest." Harry grimaced but nodded.

Nuox perked as soon as he saw Harry come in.

"What's going on?" The alien asked. Harry explained the plan in detail. Nuox frowned slightly. "Neither yourself or the Vulcan will get hurt right? I don't want to be a problem."

"Don't worry, we aren't going to hang around any longer than we have to." Harry said. The Doctor shot a glare in the Ensigns direction.


End file.
